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Qjackctl and Raspberry Pi 4 - (MIDI + Playback only)?

I have a Raspberry Pi 4 I am using with Qtractor. I have success starting Qjackctl and Qtractor with a USB Babyface Pro interface, but would like to simplify my setup. I really just want to record MIDI with my iConnectMIDI interface and see a realtime view of notes (playback out of the headphone output using any synth would be nice too).

I do not understand how to get Jack/Qjacktl setup for:
-MIDI Play/Record: iConnectMIDI1 MIDI interface
AND
-AUDIO Playback only: bcm2835 Headphones (built in Raspberry pi audio)

Any configuration using the bcm2835 as 'Interface' seems to throw a "could not connect to Jack Server as client..." error.
I have not had luck setting up any Raspberry Pi software like Qtractor (w/qjackctl) or Ardour without the Babyface plugged in... I thought maybe it was because there is no Audio Input on the pi.

Do you have any ideas on what might make this work? With Qjackctl I am confused what the relationship is between 'interface' and how it knows which MIDI device to use based on the selection (since interface appears to be for the audio). Can you help?

Thanks in advance!

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rncbc's picture

hi,

concerning JACK/QjackCtl , you only have to get the audio playback right, at first. I really don'rt know at all if the RPi4 internal audio (bcm2835 Headphones) would work to JACK, but I would try this on QjackCtl > Setup > Settings:

- on the Parameters tab, set Driver: to "alsa" and select the explicit device name that represents the headphones output, from the Interface: drop-down list of device names, if any, and do not go with the "(default)" one; if nothing is listed, on a terminal command-line to to list all the existing ALSA audio devices, with NAMEs in brackets (eg. "[NAME ] ..."; make it "hw:NAME" as for the Interface: entry field and try again;
- on the Advanced tab, set Audio: to "Playback Only" (and not "Duplex"); leave everything else at their default settings;
- hit Start and look for results in the Messages window;

on the MIDI front, you will only need to check in QjackCtl > Connections (or Graph), whether the iConnectMIDI are shown as ALSA(-MIDI) ports: that's all you need to connect to Qtractor MIDI for recording later.

hth.
cheers

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